Studies on the Moisture Dependent Physical Properties of Cowpea

Cowpea is a very important legume in Nigeria that is being utilized to Substitute high-cost animal protein for low-income people. The knowledge of some physical properties of various moisture contents is of utmost importance in the design of its handling and processing equipment and machinery, which is the aim of this work, which studied the physical properties of IT99K-573-1-1 (SAMPEA14) variety of Cowpea within 8.77 to 21.58 % db moisture content. The properties studied include Major, Intermediate, and Minor diameters, Sphericity, Surface area, Specific gravity, Volume, Bulk density, 50-tap density, 100-tap density, 1250-tap density, seed mass, Angle of repose, Geometric mean diameter, and Arithmetic mean diameter. The obtained results indicate that the Size, Sphericity, Geometric, Arithmetic diameter, Surface area, and seed mass increase linearly with an increase in moisture content by 13.8%, 27.4%, and 16.1% for the size, respectively. While sphericity rises by 7.5% and geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, surface area, and grain mass increase by 22.2%, 20.7%, 24.9%, and 16.11%, respectively. Specific gravity, density, and repose angle were inversely linearly related to moisture content. Regression equations for each of the properties related to the grains' moisture content were developed

Development and evaluation of multi millet thresher

In tribal areas of India, traditional methods of threshing of minor millets like little millet (Panicum sumatrense), M1, kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), M2, foxtail millet (Setaria italica), M3, proso millet (P. miliaceum), M4, barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumantacea), M5, finger millet (Eleusine coracana), M6 is done of beating by sticks or treading out the crop panicle under the feet of oxen. This operation is most time consuming, labour intensive, drudgery prone, uneconomical, lower output and obtain low quality products. A thresher for these millet crops was developed and optimization of the operating parameters with little millet was done by using Response surface methodology (RSM). The optimized parameters were 7.79% (d.b) moisture content, 105 kgh-1 feed rate, 625 rpm cylinder speed, 5 mm threshing sieve size which gave maximum threshing efficiency of 95.13% and cleaning efficiency of 94.12%. After optimization of parameters the thresher was tested for threshing of all the six minor millets with proper adjustments of sieve. Threshing capacity of M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M6 were obtained as 89, 137, 140, 91, 88 and 99 kg/h, respectively with more than 96% threshing efficiency and less than 2% broken grain

Soil health and ecosystem services: Lessons from sub-Sahara Africa (SSA)

Management practices to improve soil health influence several ecosystem services including regulation of water flows, changes in soil biodiversity and greenhouse gases that are important at local, regional and global levels. Unfortunately, the primary focus in soil health management over the years has been increasing crop productivity and to some extent the associated economics and use efficiencies of inputs. There are now efforts to study the inter-relationship of associated ecosystem effects of soil health management considering that sustainable intensification cannot occur without conscious recognition of these associated non-provisioning ecosystem services. This review documents the current knowledge of ecosystem services for key management practices based on experiences from agricultural lands in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Here, practicing conservation agriculture (CA) and Integrated Soil fertility management (ISFM) have overall positive benefits on increasing infiltration (> 44), reducing runoff (> 30%) and soil erosion (> 33%) and increases soil biodiversity. While ISFM and Agroforestry increase provisioning of fuelwood, fodder and food, the effect of CA on the provisioning of food is unclear. Also, considering long-term perspectives, none of the studied soil health promoting practices are increasing soil organic carbon (SOC). Annual contributions to greenhouse gases are generally low (< 3 kg N2O ha−1) with few exceptions. Nitrogen leaching vary widely, from 0.2 to over 200 kg N ha−1 and are sometimes inconsistent with N inputs. This summary of key considerations for evaluating practices from multiple perspectives including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services is important to inform future soil health policy and research initiatives in SSA

Forage legumes in African crop-livestock production systems

Examines ILCA's research on forage legumes in the past few years; discusses the potential role of forage legumes in increasing crop-livestock productivity in sub-Saharan Africa; and outlines priorities for future research

Response of grain legumes to rhizobial inoculation in two savanna soils of Nigeria

Three inoculation trials with soybean, cowpea and groundnut were conducted on Eutric Cambisols (EC) and Rhodic Nitisols (RN) in a greenhouse. Five rhizobial inoculants: MAR 1495, TSBF Mixture, Legumefix, HiStick and IRJ 2180A were tested on each crop to determine their response to soil type and ability to form symbiotic relationship with the crops. Generally, response to inoculation was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) in EC than RN. In soybean and groundnut trials, highest nodulation in both soils was recorded by strain MAR 1495 followed by TSBF Mixture and these were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than other inoculants and control. A similar trend, though only in EC, was observed in N uptake and in nitrogen fixation but no significant difference was observed in dry matter yield. Cowpea trials did not show response to inoculation nor was there difference between the soils. Instead, control treatment surpassed all the inoculated treatments in nodulation at P < 0.05. Nitrogen uptake and N2 fixation of control also surpassed those of inoculated treatments. Rhizobia strains MAR 1495 and TSBF Mixture showed similar ability to improve the productivity of soybean and groundnut thus can be used as common inoculants for the two crops

Improvements in the storage and marketing quality of grain legumes: Final technical report

The objective of this three-year project based in northern Ghana was to identify qualitative and quantitative losses in the storage of grain legumes by small-scale farmers and develop means of reducing the losses. The project used participatory surveys to monitor the loss in value during storage, both on-farm and in the markets. These surveys showed that heavy losses occurred during storage in markets

Evaluation of nutritional and functional properties of plantain (Musa paradisiaca L.) and tigernut (Cyperus esculentus L.) flour blends for food formulations

Open Access Journal; Published online: 28 Sept 2017Some individuals are intolerant to gluten of wheat and other cereals like oats, rye and barley used for food formulations and this intolerance seriously impairs intestinal absorption. There is need to develop alternative gluten-free flours for baking and confectioneries. This research therefore aimed at determining the chemical and functional properties of plantain–tiger nut composite flour to be able to explore its potentials in food formulation. The flours made from matured plantains and tiger nuts were blended at the ratio of 100:0, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 30:70 and 0:100 to make different plantain–tiger nuts flours and these were analysed using standard methods. The results revealed that protein ranged from 4.55 to 6.78/100 g, fat (2.25–32.75/100 g), crude fibre (3.50–6.13/100 g), bulk density (0.81–0.92 g/cm3), swelling power (38.38–2.37/g), Mg (30.65–49.08 mg/100 g), P (3.65–120.65 mg/100 g), K (71.62–212.08 mg/100 g), Vitamin C (3.18–5.30 mg/100 g) and Vitamin A (1.71–51.31 μg/100 g). There were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the pasting profile of the plantain–tiger nut flour blends and in functional properties of composite flour except for bulk density. Addition of tiger nut flour improved the proximate, mineral and vitamin composition of the composite flour and the study concluded that inclusion of tiger nut flour is a good protein, fat, mineral and vitamin supplement for plantain flour

Studies on the major seed proteins of some grain crops

The general properties, classification and distribution of plant proteins are discussed within an agricultural context and the protein content and composition of several grain crops are tabulated. The major proteins of legume seeds are salt soluble proteins (i.e. globulins) and the methodology for their extraction, separation and characterisation is reviewed. The structure, location and distribution of legume globulins are described and the properties of various purified legume globulins are compared. The major seed proteins of Pisum sativum are legumin and vicilin and seed globulins with properties similar to those of legumin and vicilin have been extracted from other legumes. The isolation and partial characterisation of vicilin-like proteins from seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna vinguiaulata and of legumin-like proteins from these two species and Phaseolus aureus is described. The potential usefulness of the examination of seed proteins by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to taxonomic problems in Phaseolus and Vigna is investigated and the data obtained are discussed in relation to recent re-classifications of the species. Procedures for the extraction and partial characterisation of proteins from an archaeological sample of maize grains are described and the proteins from this sample are compared with the proteins from a modern variety of maize. It is suggested that protein data from archaeological samples could be useful in studies of crop plant origins and in cultural studies, and that the procedures employed may be applicable to archaeological samples of other grains. Nutritional aspects of plant proteins are discussed briefly. A possible strategy for the improvement of the sulphur amino acid content of legumes with a relatively low legumin content is suggested and it is demonstrated that polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis may provide a basis for a screening procedure for protein quality in legume breeding programmes